Andrew Q Gordon

My condolences to his family and to all his friends. Although he and I never interacted (we existed in different orbits) he was an inspiration to so many, both readers and writers. His words and wit will be missed.

You're welcome. I think for many of us this resonates because we've lived it - or are living it. Fiction helps us provide hope that things can/will be better. That was one of the hopes with this when we wrote almost a decade ago.

They say one must always end strong and give folks what they want. I hope I did that for you.

Over the years I've learned a lot at work about trauma and how it affects people. Left untreated it alters who we are at our core. That was where I was going here. To push them to get what they needed. In some ways, I didn't do enough. I never showed the effect the trauma had on Jason. Just because he didn't see it or it didn't happen to him, he was still traumatized.

If I had to do over I might have omitted it. So I hear you. I think I was going for realistic, but people don't read for 100% realistic, you can get that in the papers. So valid criticism. Sorry.

🤐 I can't answer that. Or maybe I can and did, but not doing it here

And it's much stickier too. Perfect for needing to hit the shower. Not that one needs an excuse of course. 😇

I think it would be natural for that to happen as time goes on. Especially if one person has most of the control.

For a while I thought we'd moved beyond a lot of the nastiness and hate. Then they made a resurgence when the orange buffoon was president. Here's a prayer it goes back in hiding again for good.

Sadly that is always the case. Small people in the world. Fortunately they are not the majority.

No I imagine few are. Sorry only goes so far, it takes more than mere words to make things better.

Overcoming one's past is hard. Especially when everything was easy. Adversity is bad enough, but when you never had to deal with it, the first time it happens you just think it will go away like always. Might be a bit too late (hell it absolutely would be in the 70's 80's, 90's world of Gay lit. They always ended so tragically.)

And we wonder why teen suicide among LGBTQ youth is so high. (Actually WE don't, but those who don't care or pay attention do.) It might have been a tad unrealistic for Jason to be this strong in the face of it all, but I wanted to show that side of him.

One hopes she sees the light sooner than later. Else she'll be visiting Jason in the cemetery.

I was going for some realism here. Being caught between two people you love and trying to work it out, we sometimes make bad choices. Can't have Royce be 100% perfect. Where's the tension in that (Okay, I'd be good with being all good all the time.) But I agree. Not a good thing. Again going back to context. While it was never seen as mainstream, conversion therapy wasn't seen as the horror story it is now. There wasn't always the universal condemnation that there is now.